


All That Glitters

by pocketwhale



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, One Shot, idk i don't think this is fluff i think it's just dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-18
Updated: 2013-04-18
Packaged: 2017-12-08 20:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/765913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocketwhale/pseuds/pocketwhale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Trust me, Arthur. You’ll absolutely love it.”</p><p>“Somehow, I highly doubt that.”</p><p>Or Morgana takes Arthur to a gay club.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All That Glitters

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhh alright so this was originally part of the one-word ficlet thing but became very much not a ficlet. It's known among friends as "The Infamous Glitter-Fic" ('Glitter' being the inspiration word). Basically it's just a ficlet that got out of control and became a terribly cheesy one-shot.

“Trust me, Arthur. You’ll absolutely love it.”

“Somehow, I highly doubt that.”

Morgana tutted at him for being so negative as she dragged him through the streets, but really, Arthur couldn’t help his bad mood. It was completely understandable; he had just been disinherited after all.

“Lighten up, Arthur. We’re coming here to celebrate!”

“Celebrate what? Father cutting me off or practically disowning me?”

“No, of course not. But really, it shouldn’t matter what he does, Arthur, you’re your own man and you need to stop looking to him for approval. Anyway, no. We’re coming here to finally celebrate your coming out!”

Arthur groaned. This was why he had avoided telling his family for so many years. He knew his father would react adversely to him being gay, and he knew Morgana would be overly enthusiastic about it. The other problem was that he couldn’t say no to anything Morgana wanted to do right now, or she’d guilt trip him about keeping something so big from her for years.

They arrived at the club and Arthur visibly cringed at the pounding beats and the voice of Lady Gaga crooning about disco sticks that met him at the doorway.

“Must we—“

“Yes,” Morgana said before he had a chance to complain and she tugged him inside.

Inside it was far worse. The music was deafening and the room was crowded full of men and women, but a majority men. The only lights that shone dimly, Arthur observed, were decidedly pink. As soon as he walked in, he felt eyes boring into him. He caught flashes of suggestive smirks and flirty eyebrows. He also felt fleeting touches and no so accidental bumps. Normally, he would have relished the attention, but he wasn’t particularly in the mood tonight.

“I need something to drink,” Arthur grumbled, although he noticed that Morgana had already disappeared into the crowd. Theoretically, he could just leave now, but he knew Morgana would come looking for him later, and he didn’t want to deal with her wrath if he bailed.

On his way to the bar, he spotted his sister talking with a pretty, dark skinned girl. They were giggling and chatting comfortably. Arthur wondered vaguely if she was a friend of Morgana’s.

Upon arriving at the bar, Arthur’s stomach dropped. Not one drink they served was in any way normal. They were all extremely colorful, frilly, and/or fruity. Leave it to Morgana to take him to the most stereotypical gay club in existence. He sat and ordered something monstrously blue and grimaced, but downed the whole thing.

He turned in his seat to observe the clubbers, briefly scanning the crowd for Morgana before realizing she had again disappeared. He settled in, instead, to just people watch. Arthur would keep his interaction with these people to a minimum. However, as he watched people dancing and having fun, he wondered briefly if it would really be so bad to get up and dance. He was quick to blame the thought on the alcohol. He refused to get up and humiliate himself, and really, if he were perfectly honest with himself, there didn’t seem to be anyone here that really struck his fancy. Sure, there were plenty of good looking guys out there on the dance floor, but no one in particular grabbed his attention.

That is, until, he saw a pale, lanky form with messy black hair, ridiculous ears, and the most gorgeous cheekbones he had ever seen walk slowly up to the bar and take a seat a couple of chair down from him. Arthur couldn’t help but stare at him. He wasn’t handsome in the traditional sense, but that was what made him all the more interesting. He had a vaguely fey look about him, all pale skin and bony everything. He also, Arthur quickly noticed, seemed to be enjoying the club just as much as him. His head was bent down and his shoulders hunched as he looked down at the bar as if it could give him all the secrets of the world.

The pale man’s gaze shifted to the side and he locked eyes with Arthur from behind thick-rimmed glasses. Arthur knew he must be staring and flushed slightly, but quickly composed himself and gave the other man a polite head nod in acknowledgement. The other man flashed a small, but very genuine and sweet smile, and Arthur couldn’t really help but smile back.

“I’ll have what he’s having,” the man told the bartender, nodding in Arthur’s direction.

“Not sure if you want to,” Arthur told him, heart beating unnaturally fast in his chest. “It’s a bit questionable, to say the least.” He held up his newly refilled glass and grimaced at it for emphasis.

The other man chuckled. “Everything here is questionable,” he commented as the bartender placed his drink in front of him. He took a sip and immediately choked a little. “Oh god, that is foul.”

Arthur laughed at the man’s antics and the man glared at him in return.

“So have you been here before?” Arthur asked, becoming a little bolder as he shifted over a chair closer.

“Yeah, but it’s been a while. Not quite as fun as I remember, but a friend of mine forced me to come,” the man answered, taking another sip of his toxically blue drink.

“My sister dragged me out,” Arthur said with a very put-upon sigh. The other man laughed.

“We have so much in common!” the man said mock-enthusiastically, causing Arthur to laugh as well. He stuck out his hand for the other man to shake. The other man shifted over another seat, closing the space between them and grasped his hand, still smiling.

“The name’s Arthur, and you?”

“Merlin.”

Arthur stared at the man for a moment, hand still grasping Merlin’s.

“Really?” he asked, with a little incredulous laugh. “You’re not taking the piss?”

Merlin rolled his eyes in response. “No, that is in fact the name I was born with, thank you very much. And don’t even start with the jokes, because trust me, I’ve heard them all.”

Arthur held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I wasn’t going to say anything,” he said, although he was still chuckling.

“Good,” Merlin said as his drink was refilled.

They fell into a comfortable silence as they nursed their drinks and watched the other people in the club. Arthur finished his third, and Merlin his second. Arthur turned down the proffered fourth drink and he paid for the three he had drunk. Merlin gladly accepted a third. Arthur knew he had a relatively high tolerance for alcohol, and he knew when to stop. Merlin, however, after only two, seemed a bit more flushed and a bit more fuzzily happy.

Lightweight, Arthur thought fondly, which really was a bit odd since he had only just met Merlin and shouldn’t be thinking about him fondly.

“So why did your sister drag you out, anyway?” Merlin asked, taking another healthy gulp of blue.

“Well, uh, to celebrate, I suppose.” Arthur had flushed at the question, realizing that it might be a bit embarrassing to say out loud that he had only just come out. He was twenty-six years old for crying out loud.

“Well that’s vague. Is it your birthday or something?”

Arthur chuckled. “Ah, no. To celebrate my coming out. Morgana’s a bit, well, Morgana,” Arthur said, fumbling with words. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Arthur never had problems talking to attractive men or women, but he also didn’t tend to bare himself to complete strangers. There was just something about Merlin.

Merlin, to his credit, didn’t laugh. He smiled warmly and genuinely.

“Well good for you. I say that’s probably worth celebrating at least in some capacity.” He held up his nearly empty drink. “To, you, Arthur, for having the balls to admit you’re a fruit.” Arthur laughed uproariously as Merlin downed the rest of his drink.

“Arthur!”

Arthur turned at the sound of his name and frowned, seeing Morgana a little ways a way, waving for him to come over. Typical. Leave it to Morgana to take him someplace he didn’t want to go, and then call him away when he was finally having a good time.

“Sorry,” Arthur said lowly, looking back to Merlin who was waving the bartender over for a fourth. “I have to go. The witch is calling,” he said gesturing over his shoulder to his sister.

Merlin looked up at him blankly for a moment but quickly blinked the look away and smiled.

“Sure, sure. Go on and leave me to get wasted by myself. I don’t mind,” he said sarcastically, although Arthur thought he might be able to pick up and undertone of hurt in his voice. Or maybe he was just projecting.

Arthur smiled apologetically as he stood.

“It was nice to meet you Merlin.”

“You too, Arthur.”

\---

“What the hell do you want, Morgana?” Arthur growled after dragging himself away from the bar to meet his sister on the edge of the dance floor.

“God, Arthur. I thought some drinking would loosen you up. Who shoved a stick up your—“

“I was with someone, Morgana!” he snapped angrily. “It was… nice.” Morgana softened.

“Sorry Arthur,” she said, having the decency to look chastised. “You could go back if you want.”

Arthur sighed. “No, he’s probably left anyway. Now what did you want?”

A wicked grin graced Morgana’s features and Arthur immediately regretting not taking her up on her offer to go back to the bar. She hooked her arm around his and dragged him into the throng of dancing people.

“I want you to meet someone!” she yelled over the blasting music as she weaved through the crowd. Arthur was desperately trying not to bump into the people that seemed to just part for Morgana. Near the center of the dance floor he kept especially close to her, as the thoroughly drunk always ended up there. He took in the blurred shapes of shirtless males grinding against one another, coated in a sparkly sheen that, upon closer inspection, was a healthy dousing of glitter. Arthur shuddered and Morgana plowed onward.

Arthur breathed a sigh of relief as the throng of people opened up once again and they left the dance floor. On the other side of the club, there were tables and booths surrounded by curtains to provide for some level of privacy. He saw Morgana waving to a figure poking out from behind one of the curtains. Arthur recognized her as the same girl as before as Morgana dragged him over to the otherwise empty booth and sat him down.

The noise was only dulled minimally but Arthur thanked god for even the slight respite.

“Arthur, this is Gwen. She worked with us, or really for me, a few years back, but I doubt you’ve ever met. Arthur tends to not notice anyone outside of his father and himself at work.” Morgana made the last comment in Gwen’s direction. The dark-skinned girl giggled as she stuck out her hand for Arthur to shake.

Arthur shook her hand politely, but glared at Morgana for the jibe. “That’s is completely untrue,” he growled.

“Arthur, it is one-hundred percent accurate, and you know it.” Arthur grumbled something inaudible and sunk down deeper into the booth.

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Arthur,” Gwen said, still giggling a bit. She glanced out the curtains again, scanning the less crowded area for someone.

“So where is this friend of yours?” Morgana said, taking a seat next to Gwen. Gwen frowned, still looking around.

“Not sure. I really wanted you to meet him, but it looks like he’s buggered off somewhere– Oh!” Gwen suddenly smiled brilliantly. Arthur recognized in that moment how genuine and beautiful Gwen really was. If he was in a better mood, and wasn’t gay, he would probably be all over her. Although, considering where she was, he might not be her type either. “Here comes Gwaine!”

Before Arthur had a chance to ask who the hell Gwaine was, he felt himself being shoved over in the booth to make room for the new arrival.

Gwaine was fit, it was the first thing that Arthur noticed. He had a strong build, modelesque facial features, and truly fabulous hair, but he was also hopelessly rude and encroaching on Arthur’s personal space, which pretty much killed any kind of potential attraction for Arthur.

“You mind?”

Gwaine didn’t even turn to look at him as he offered a quick ‘sorry mate’.

“Couldn’t find him anywhere,” Gwaine began, shrugging. “He told me he was going to the bar, but I couldn’t find him there. Maybe he’s found himself a nice bloke and they buggered off together,” Gwaine suggested, flashing a blindingly charming smile.

Arthur didn’t bother asking who the ‘he’ Gwaine was referring to was. He figured he probably wouldn’t get an answer.

Gwen shook her head. “We only just finally got him to come out with us. I doubt he’s up to going off with some bloke. If anything, he probably got himself royally pissed and is out on the dance floor somewhere.”

Gwaine laughed. “Yeah that sounds like him. Can’t hold his drink, our boy.” Gwen chuckled.

“Ah well. We’ll find him eventually. Oh, Gwaine, this is Morgana, my old boss and her step-brother Arthur,” Gwen said, finally getting around to introducing them. Gwaine turned to Morgana first.

“My lady,” he said as he took her hand with a flourish and pressed his lips to her knuckle. Morgana laughed and Arthur’s frown just deepened. Gwaine then turned to him.

“Nice to meet ya, Arthur.” Gwaine said smiling, giving his hand a strong shake.

“Yeah, whatever,” Arthur returned, still grouchy and not sold on Gwaine’s charm.

Gwaine held up his hands and shrugged.

“Sorry, mate. Don’t know what I did to offend his highness, but it won’t happen again.”

“Don’t mind him, Gwaine. He’s just pissy because Daddy’s mad at him.”

“A bit more than mad, Morgana, in case you forgot that he practically disowned me,” Arthur ground out, glaring at the table.

Morgana sighed and looked to Gwen and Gwaine hopefully, basically pleading with them silently to do something to cheer her brother up and take his mind off of Uther. That had been the purpose of this venture in the first place. Gwaine gladly rose to the occasion.

“Alright, princess, time to buck up. Your sister was kind enough to take you out tonight and it is clear to me you haven’t even tried to have a good time.” Arthur made to protest but Gwaine held up his hand.

“Nope. You are in dire need of some fun-therapy. And you know what they say, when in doubt, dance it out!”

Arthur was about to ask who the hell actually says that when he felt Gwaine grab and drag him out of the booth.

“No! No way in hell are you getting me out on that dance floor to be groped and grinded against!” but apparently neither Gwaine, nor Gwen, nor Morgana cared what he was and was not comfortable with, as the two girls had come up behind him to help Gwaine in manhandling him onto the dance floor.

They successfully got him away from the tables and as they were shoving him towards the dance floor, he finally just gave up and let them drag him away.

“I hate all of you,” Arthur growled, but the music was pounding once again, and he doubted they heard him.

Once back in the center of the crowd of dancers, Gwaine let go of him and immediately joined in with other strangers who were bouncing up and down to the beat. Morgana took his hand already dancing in that seductive and dangerous way that was just classic Morgana. She laughed at his blatant discomfort and tried to get him to move. He was moving, but really it was more to try and avoid other men getting handsy.

“Come on, Arthur! You’re already out here, you might as well dance!”

“No one will judge you!” Gwen piped up from behind Morgana, also dancing, although far more modestly.

“No thanks. You already dragged me out here. Isn’t that bad enough?” Morgana and Gwen looked at each other and sighed and Morgana let go of his hand, frowning.

“Alright, fine. You win Arthur. Go home if you want to. We were just trying to cheer you up. A bloke to take home was a little ambitious, I do admit, but you clearly don’t want to be here.” Morgana glared at him, looking angry and disappointed while Gwen just looked sad. But at this point, Arthur was just glad he was allowed to leave. He felt only a slight knot of guilt in his stomach as he turned to leave his sister and her friends. She had tried.

Arthur tried to make it back to the other side of the club safely, but parting the crowd was much harder without Morgana, especially because so many of the blokes in this god-forsaken club were eager to grab on to a good-looking guy like him. Arthur was fucking sick and tired of guys bumping him and grabbing his arse, so when some bloke had the audacity to come up behind him and slip and arm around his waist, breathing “Hey, Handsome,” into his ear Arthur snapped.

“Get the fuck off me!” he snarled, whirling around to face the man, and then his heart nearly stopped. Bloody Merlin was standing there, still grinning and eyeing him hungrily. His face and ears had a bright red flush to them, whether from exertion or alcohol, he couldn’t tell, although he guessed it was a little bit of both. Merlin stepped into Arthur’s personal space, hand still firmly in place at Arthur’s hip.

“Come, Arthur. Don’ be like that,” he said with a slight slur, chuckling. Merlin was in his face and Arthur could smell the alcohol on him. So not so much from exertion, then. Arthur still couldn’t find anything to say as Merlin closed even more space between them. Merlin was there, completely pissed, and Arthur couldn’t help but notice shirtless. Vast expanses of pale flesh were pressed flush against him and really, Arthur couldn’t breathe. Merlin had also apparently lost his glasses somewhere, as Arthur looked directly into his deep blue, and slightly glazed over, eyes.

And also, there was glitter. Merlin was absolutely covered in it. Sparkles dusted his sharp cheekbones and coated his chest. There was glitter in his hair and little sparkles clinging to his eyelashes. Glitter on his shoulders spread down his arms and became heavily concentrated on his hands, long slender fingers gleaming in the dim lights.

He no longer looked just vaguely fey. He looked like a bloody fairy. But Arthur still couldn’t make words form in his dry mouth and his hands itched to run fingers all over Merlin’s body, just as Merlin was brazenly doing to him.

When he was finally able to get his mouth working again, the only thing he was able to choke out was, “Where are your glasses?”

Merlin chuckled and shrugged. “Somewhere.”

Arthur smiled in spite of himself. “How’d you find me if you can’t see?” Idiot.

“’d know you anywhere,” Merlin breathed, full, pink lips mere inches away from Arthur’s own.

Arthur, against his better judgment because Merlin was not only a stranger, but he was completely plastered, was closing the small distance between them when suddenly, the music, which had become just background noise to Arthur, changed. The sound of sirens and “Two-step, two-step” blasted from the speakers and Merlin pulled back. The tease.

“Love this song,” Merlin was beaming as he grasped Arthur’s wrist and moved closer to the center of the dance floor. Arthur put up no resistance.

Surrounded by bodies yet again, Merlin let Arthur go and began dancing. It was a little wild, but far more graceful than any drunk dancing should be. Merlin was laughing, bright and loud as he twirled and slid his feet around the dance floor.

Soon, he turned back to Arthur and locked eyes with him. He took long, over-exaggerated strides back towards him in time with the chanting “Two-step, two-step, two-step.”

“C’mon Arthur,” Merlin said, sliding an arm around and squeezing his arse. “Let me see your fancy-footwork.”

Arthur soon found himself moving with Merlin around the dance floor, laughing and grinning, face flushed. Merlin really was a good dancer; Arthur never would have guessed it, what with his coltish build.

Soon, the song ended and both Arthur and Merlin were flushed and panting, pressed against each other, grinning like idiots.

“Arthur?”

“Merlin?!”

The two of them turned to see Gwen, Morgana, and even Gwaine, staring at them. Morgana looked smug and Gwen looked surprised while simultaneously fond. Gwaine just looked like he wanted to laugh. Arthur flushed brighter red from embarrassment.

“Uh..”

“Hey guys!” Merlin called, still smiling. He pointed to Arthur. “’s Arthur! I love him!”

Arthur physically burned from embarrassment while Gwaine erupted in raucous laughter and the two girls broke into a fit of giggles. Gwaine came over to them and held out his arms to Merlin. Merlin flung himself onto Gwaine, making something sour curl in Arthur’s stomach. Gwaine, however, adjusted Merlin so that one arm was slung over his shoulder and motioned for Arthur to take the other. Arthur obliged, and he realized that Merlin was slowly becoming dead weight. His lids were heavy and his shaky steps far less graceful than a moment ago when he was dancing.

“Come on, mate. Let’s sit you down somewhere,” Gwaine said still chuckling as he and Arthur practically carried Merlin off the dance floor, Gwen and Morgana following closely behind.

\---

They retreated back to the booth they had occupied before, Gwaine and Arthur sliding into the booth with Merlin sandwiched between them. Upon sitting, Merlin immediately slumped over, his head pillowed on Arthur’s shoulder and his eyelids drooping shut.

“We wanted to introduce you two. We didn’t think you’d already met.” Morgana still had her trademark smirk firmly in place, but she looked at Arthur pointedly, inviting him to explain.

“We haven’t—I mean, not before tonight. I met him at the bar earlier. He wasn’t so royally pissed at that point.” Gwen chuckled.

“Merlin can’t hold his alcohol very well,” she said, looking fondly upon the pale man’s resting form.

“I gathered as much.”

A beat.

“So what was that, Arthur?” Morgana burst out, laughing. “All night we try to get you to have some fun and dance and let loose a little bit, and nothing. You spend the night avoiding other men and wanting to go home. Then Merlin comes along and suddenly you’re laughing and spinning around the dance floor, clutching to him like a lifeline.” Morgana raised an eyebrow. “Something else you want to tell us?”

Arthur glowered at his half-sister, but his bright flush belied that he wasn’t really angry as much as he was just thoroughly embarrassed. “He’s just… A good dancer,” mumbled half-heartedly, really not wanting to admit to Morgana that he was attracted to the man upon first spotting him.

At his comment, however, both Gwaine and Gwen looked at each other and then burst out laughing. Morgana and Arthur looked from the two laughing friends back to each other, not really sure what the joke was.

“S—Sorry Arthur,” Gwen said, still breathing spasmodically from laughing so hard. “It’s jus—just—“

“Merlin is a horrible dancer!” Gwaine finished, erupting into another storm of laughter. Gwen nodded in agreement.

“He’s horribly uncoordinated all of the time, except when he’s drunk. It doesn’t make much sense; Merlin’s a very contradictory person. I don’t know if it’s the lack of inhibitions or what, but if he was rats-arsed enough to be good at dancing then we might have to watch him for alcohol poisoning,” she said, sounding only half-serious as she looked at the sleeping man fondly. “He doesn’t usually drink so much when he’s out with friends.” Her smile fell away as she said it. She sighed, turning to Gwaine.

“We should have known something like this would happen,” she said quietly.

“We did know. I mean we guessed he would get completely pissed tonight. We just didn’t factor in this one,” he said, gesturing vaguely to Arthur.

Arthur spluttered indignantly, but Morgana seemed more interested in what Gwaine and Gwen were talking about.

“How did you know Merlin would drink himself under a table?” Gwaine and Gwen looked at each other briefly before Gwen turned to Morgana.

“He’s been, uh, really down lately,” she said vaguely. Morgana raised an eyebrow. Gwen sighed. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say about what. It’s Merlin’s story and he’s not really in a state to tell it.”

Morgana nodded, accepting despite still being curious, but Arthur wouldn’t have it.

“He told me earlier that a friend of his had forced him to come. I take it that’s you.” Gwen nodded.

“Yeah. He hadn’t left his flat in weeks and I got sick of waiting for him to cheer up and forced him to come out with me. I called in Gwaine for back up.”

“So why has he been confining himself to his flat?” Morgana asked, jumping right back in. Gwen looked to Gwaine, who nodded encouragingly and then looked to Merlin, as if for approval, despite him still being completely dead to the world. She let out a sigh and then looked to Arthur and Morgana.

“His boyfriend died,” she said quietly. Arthur, for his part, felt something clench unpleasantly in his stomach. He wasn’t really sure what about Gwen’s statement had him feeling this way, but he certainly didn’t like it.

Morgana, on the other hand, was nothing but sympathetic. “What was his name?”

“Will. His name was Will,” Gwaine responded. Gwen nodded.

“He wasn’t just Merlin’s boyfriend either. They had been best friends. They grew up together. They started dating shortly after I met Merlin several years ago. Will was, well, he was a funny guy. Very big personality, you know. He was the partier of the two of them. He used to bring Merlin here a lot. They always had a blast together. I actually haven’t seen Merlin smiling like he used to until tonight, when he was dancing with you, Arthur.” Gwen smiled warmly at Arthur, despite her eyes sparkling with tears for her friend.

Arthur didn’t really know what to say, so he just nodded.

“Will died almost three months ago. Drunk driver hit his car. Merlin was in the accident as well, but Will was on the side that the other car hit. Merlin blamed himself, as if there was something he could have done. After he got over the guilt of living when Will had died, he just spiraled into a depression. Like I said before, this is the first time we’ve manage to get him out of the flat. It’s really not a big surprise that he got himself so completely drunk.”

Arthur looked down at Merlin as Gwen told the story. His previously peacefully sleeping face was now twisted into a slight frown and the pale man looked pained. He was definitely still asleep, but it was if he knew what they were talking about. Or maybe he was dreaming about his old boyfriend – Will was it? Arthur had to look away when he saw tears slip from underneath Merlin’s still closed lids, but his eyes were inevitably drawn back to that mop of dark hair. He brought a hand up to gently thumb away the tears from Merlin’s face.

“I’m glad you brought him out tonight,” he said quietly, not taking his eyes away from Merlin.

Morgana looked at her step-brother warmly, as did Gwen. Gwaine looked like he wanted to say something, but thought better of it, instead sitting back and just looking happy that his friend had found someone who cared.

Arthur shifted Merlin on his shoulder so that he was once again supporting him in a way that would allow him to move him.

“I think Merlin should be taken home,” he said, turning to the others. Gwen and Gwaine nodded.

“I’ll take him,” Gwaine offered.

“No, I will.” Arthur said calmly. “I didn’t want to come here in the first place,” he said, shooting a look at Morgana, but smiling faintly as if to say, but thanks for forcing me. “I’ll take him to my flat. Morgana can tell you where it is so you can come and pick him up in the morning, but someone should stay with him. Make sure he doesn’t drown in his own vomit, or something.” Gwaine acquiesced and Gwen smiled.

“Thanks, Arthur,” she said, quietly, eyes still shining.

\---

Arthur opened the door to his flat and grunted under the weight of Merlin as he moved inside. It was quiet, so much quieter than the pounding music of the club, and Arthur was grateful for it. His head was still buzzing, although whether from the noise or from everything else, he wasn’t sure. He dragged Merlin over to the couch and laid him down gently. The man had stirred and mumbled some incoherent sentences on the way over, but not much more than that.

Arthur looked down at the sleeping Merlin. It was strange. Arthur was not the type of guy to do this. He was often instantly attracted to blokes in a physical sense, but he’d never felt this type of affection; this fondness and this need to protect and care for someone. He had felt it vaguely before Gwen had even told her story. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

He looked down at Merlin’s softly snoring form, and before he could stop himself, he pressed his lips to the crown of his head.

“Good night, Merlin,” he whispered as he pulled away, meaning to retire to his own bed to sleep. But something caught his hand as he moved away and Arthur looked down, startled. Merlin’s hand was grasping his wrist, and his eyes were open only slightly, but looking at him imploringly.

“Stay. Please,” he murmured softly. Arthur’s breath hitched and he moved back over to Merlin’s side.

“Okay,” he said quietly, and Merlin’s eyes closed once more, although he didn’t let go of Arthur’s wrist. Arthur slid down to sit on the floor, back leaning against the arm of the couch. He knew he would wake up tomorrow with a ridiculously sore back, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.


End file.
